United Staff of Columbia College

President Carter:
United Staff of Columbia College (USofCC) believes that the interests of the College community — students, staff, and faculty — must be a top priority. Representing full-time and part-time staff, USofCC maintains that the following steps must be taken in order to protect the well-being of our union members:

• Share budget data to allow the Columbia community to understand the College’s financial condition.
• Freeze layoffs of current staff members during the Prioritization process, while recognizing that many positions will shift and some may disappear.
• Sufficiently re-train, develop, and re-deploy staff who are displaced.
• Deliver promotions with an accompanying increase in salary to staff members who have been given greater responsibility and workloads due to recent budget cuts and other changes.

USofCC asks the following questions.  We believe the concerns of USofCC should become part of the official record for consideration by Dr. Carter and the Board.

1. USofCC looks forward to bargaining with the College over the nature and impact of the Prioritization process upon our members. When will the College begin bargaining with the Union over these changes, which has been formally requested in letters to the College?
2. Will the College be doing a comprehensive job description and compensation evaluation for those employees who have been given additional responsibilities as a result of Prioritization changes?
3. What HR/managerial process is being considered to address staffing and job position changes? Will the College develop this process in collaboration with the USofCC?

Respectfully,
The USofCC Executive Committee

This is the letter we distrinuted to the Board of Trustees on December 6, 2011:

Dear Distinguished Members of the Columbia Board of Trustees:

We are members of Columbia College’s staff, faculty and student body. We are gathered here today to challenge the choices that the College is making in its continuing prioritization campaign.

In particular we are concerned that the College’s prioritization program has failed to take into account the very people who have helped make Columbia College an academic and cultural success.

Students now find that many course options have been cut and many class credits reduced–making it harder to graduate in the normal amount of time. Student aides have been laid off in a number of departments. This poses a financial hardship for these students, and leaves other students without adequate services.  Students have seen tuition increases greatly outpace inflation; yet none of this newly generated income is to be allocated to the dedicated members of the faculty and staff.

Qualified and experienced part-time faculty members have seen their classes pared back, and their job security come under constant threat.

Staff members who perform above the call of duty and take on the work of former co-workers are denied any extra compensation and forced to accept a wage freeze for reasons that the College refuses to explain.

The College’s prioritization campaign promised transparency and the active involvement of all campus groups. This has not happened. The College has said they are forced to make difficult choices, but they refuse to explain what these choices are. Students are the reason that we are all here, but they have been thoroughly left out of the prioritization process.

For these reasons, we urge the Board of Trustees to take immediate action to ensure that Columbia’s students, faculty and staff members are the administration’s first priority.